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Roger L. Welton, DVM, Veterinarian

Category: Dog

Satisfied Customers: 1447

Experience: Licensed Veterinarian, Practice Owner, and Book Author

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What are the black spots on my Labs scrotum/anus

Resolved Question:

My 5 yr old yellow Lab has gotten many small black spots on his scrotum and anus. He has skin allergies, but I have never seen these before. I don't seem them anywhere else. He does have some eczema that was also discovered on his belly, but those are pink spots. Please help....????

Okay, flush with the skin indicates that you are likely dealing with areas of skin pigment, which can occur over time as part of natural pigmentary changes that happen with age. For reasons not fully known, this seems to occur more commonly in intact males as opposed to neutered males. At any rate, it cold be perfectly normal.

However, sometimes in chronic skin disease cases, such as allergies or endocrine disease such as Cushings Disease or Hypothyroidism, the skin will attempt to protect itself by laying down pigment. Therefore, it may be a good idea to test for hypothyroidism and chushings disease, just to make certain that they are not involved in your dog's chronic skin issues.

Here are articles I wrote on skin allergies, hypothyroidism, and cushings disease:

Ok....so are those areas common to have pigmentary changes??? Like I said, I don't see the black spots anywhere else. Looking at the articles, I don't think he has either one of those diseases. He has no other signs of anything wrong with him, other than the exzema. His weight is fine, his behavior is normal....just those black spots in those strange places. Just wanted to make sure to are "normal" spots for the pigment to change...??? Thank you for your time....

Fair enough, glad you perused the articles to look for other signs that those diseases may be possible. In that case, the pigmentary changes are probably normal. Normal prigmantary changes can occur anywhere on the body where there is skin, so there really is no "normal" place to see them. What is important is that the character of the pigment and lack of signs of endocrine disease, means that there is likely little to worry about.

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